As Massachusetts lawmakers grapple with legalizing aspects of marijuana use and cultivation, they are addressing some vital issues.

Growing cannabis requires the right environment to safely flourish. It can smell foul; it’s valuable, and it can occasionally attract some unsavory visitors. Home-grown cannabis may be the only legal choice for vast swaths of the population to access adult-use marijuana.

With those facts in mind, on Monday, July 23, 2018, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy fine-tuned language that may help the state’s residents legally obtain — and grow — their weed. Though Massachusetts legalized adult-use marijuana on Nov. 8, 2016, the state still lacks any shops where those 21 and older can legally purchase it. The first license for a marijuana business was issued June 21, 2018, and its first provisional license for a recreational-use dispensary was ussyed July 2, 2018. As a result, home cultivation looks to be the fastest — and for now, the only — path to legally obtain marijuana in the commonwealth.

The joint committee recommended that H4796, accompanied by H4379, be adopted by the House Rules Committee. H4796 is an order to study cultivation rentals and lays the groundwork for H4379, known as An Act Authorizing Safe and Secure Growth Facilities.

Introduced by Democratic Rep. Daniel Cahill, H4379 seeks to update the law that regulates adult-use marijuana by amending the Massachusetts General Laws by inserting the following definitions: